Ryan O’Reilly is free from his KHL contract, but whether that means he is coming back to the NHL remains to be seen.

According to a statement on Metallurg Magnitogorsk’s website on Thursday, the 21-year-old forward’s contract with the Russian club has been terminated “by mutual agreement of the parties.” O’Reilly, who has scored five goals with five assists in 10 games for Metallurg, has a foot injury that he aggravated in his last game, but the severity of the injury is unclear, and the Magnitogorsk statement cited both the injury and O’Reilly’s negotiations to return to the NHL as reasons for the termination of his contract.

Ryan O'Reilly, the Avs' leading scorer last season, is no closer to signing a deal. (AP Photo)

O’Reilly is a restricted free agent on this side of the Atlantic, having finished his three-year, $2.64 million entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche last season, when he scored 18 goals with 37 assists in 81 games. According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, O’Reilly is “not any closer to a deal” with the Avalanche.

Without O’Reilly, Colorado has started the season 1-1, with five goals scored and five goals allowed. While the Avalanche’s scoring has been balanced — no player on the roster has more than one point — Wednesday’s announcement that Steve Downie will undergo season-ending knee surgery is troublesome.

If Colorado can get O’Reilly back into the fold and healthy, he could slide nicely in alongside Paul Stastny and David Jones on the second line, and bump Jamie McGinn to a more appropriate spot on the third line with John Mitchell and Milan Hejduk, where Downie had been skating. Or the Avalanche could just put O’Reilly into the spot vacated by Downie.

Such plans, though, are premature to say the least. According to the statement from Metallurg, “Ryan did not rule out the possibility of a new contract overseas in February.” Magnitogorsk is third in the KHL’s Eastern Conference, and the end of the NHL lockout did the club no favors as Evgeni Malkin, Nikolai Kulemin and Sergei Gonchar all returned to North America.